Diversity in the Tech Workplace

     The lack of diversity in most tech companies today is a large problem. While many other industries have largely overcome the diversity issue, the tech industry still has a long way to go. As Google’s hiring statistics show, the tech industry faces both racial and gender diversity issues. Only 17% of Google’s tech workers are women and only 1% are black or other non-Asian minorities. It seems to me that both types of diversity issues are consequences of flaws in American social culture. Furthermore, it seems evident that these shortcomings threaten to undermine the credibility of the tech industry, and perhaps the industry itself, as well.

     Several black members of the tech industry have voiced their concerns with the state of diversity in the industry. Former Twitter engineer Leslie Miley has said that Twitter is “so bad at it” when discussing diversity with CodeSwitch, despite the fact that Twitter is a very popular medium within the black community. Google employee and Medium contributor EricaJoy wrote that she “[stuck] out like a sore thumb… I’ve gotten passed over for roles I know I could not only perform in, but that I could excel in.” Clearly, when there’s a situation when any employee, not to mention a large group of employees, cannot produce to his or her full potential because of cultural resistance, the employer cannot produce at its full potential, either. Thus, it rapidly becomes clear that the entire tech industry is operating at a suboptimal level. Only a two-part change in culture can fix this. On one hand, Silicon Valley must expand its search parameters for new coders. The current rotation of target schools produce predominantly white developers. Schools like Howard produce predominantly black developers who do not lack in talent or willpower, as the Bloomberg feature pointed out. It would behoove companies in the Valley to give students like Professor Burge’s a closer look. On the other hand, companies have to seriously invest in diversifying their workforces. Although programs like the ones mentioned by CNN Money are important, tech companies must not only stress the importance of diversity to their current employees, but to prospective and new employees, as well. Change can only happen when there is complete buy-in from all levels of the company, from CEO to HR to the technical staff.

     Equally disappointing is the skewed gender distribution within the tech industry. Men dominate the industry. The reason is simple: women don’t feel welcome. For the last 60 years, the culture which predominates within the Valley, whether you call it “nerd culture,” “hacker culture,” “dev culture,” or any one of a myriad of labels, has been very masculine. Despite our common humanity, it is clear that there are general psychological differences between men and women. Stimuli and environments which men thrive in can be very tough for women to navigate. Even in childhood, this can be seen. My brother and I shared a room early on, and needless to say, it was very much our room. Dark colors, Legos, underwear, and sports memorabilia were always strewn about. My sisters had rooms which were bright, meticulously kept, and generally looked nice. It should come as no surprise that my sisters never entered my brother’s and my room when we were young kids. It seems to me that the tech industry today is similar to my childhood bedroom: a decidedly unfriendly place for women. As New York Times editorialists have pointed out, women “are afraid they won’t fit in.” The aggression of “nerdy strutting” and the prevalence of male-centric geek culture has been off-putting to women since the mid-80s, when coding ceased to be a job performed almost equally by men and women. Valley companies can increase the numbers of women in tech jobs by making those jobs more attractive to women. All they must do is remove the masculine aggression associated with Valley culture. Harvey Mudd College proved this was possible by making their computer science program less masculine and cut-throat. Once the number of women is comparable to the number of men in tech jobs, Silicon Valley will be able to produce at unprecedented levels.

     Ultimately, the key to solving issues of racial and gender diversity is removing the cultural resistance which prevails in the Valley (and on the Street, to a lesser extent) today.  Once the necessary changes are made, the tech industry will be able to operate with an efficiency and wealth of creativity never before imagined. Then, and only then, will the computing industry become the revolutionary force it claims to be.